Rally-eMag May 2014 / News
This month’s wrap up
Bouffier gives Hyundai i20
maiden win
The Hyundai Shell World Rally Team took
to French Alps to run their i20 WRC on
tarmac in competitive circumstances. The
main purpose was to garner information
for the upcoming WRC events on tarmac
but in the mean time, Bryan Bouffier made
sure the team took home their first silverware too.
No Sibiu Rally in 2014 ERC
Sibiu Rally Romania was scheduled to be the
third rally of the ERC season and promised
some exciting snow covered stages on the iconic
Transfãgãrãan highway in Romania. Unfortunately, it will not be so.
To ensure that the event provided valuable feedback for future WRC events the
team ran on its regular WRC tyres and
fuel, which differ somewhat from those eligible in the French championship.
This did not stop Bouffier from winning
the twelve stage event, although this obviously was not the main objective. “I’m really happy to win Rallye Antibes. We did
a good job this weekend and focussed
on Hyundai Motorsports’ key objective for
coming to the event, giving the team a lot
of feedback and information to develop
the Hyundai i20 WRC on tarmac.”
The Rally Antibes - Cote d’Azur is no easy
stroll through the park. It contains infamous roads as the Col de Blaine, Col de
Braus and Col de Turini which also regularly feature on the Rallye Monte Carlo.
This provided the team with an excellent
opportunity to test the car on proper stages in proper competition.
Still for a competitor like Bouffier taking the
win was very welcome icing on the cake.
The event was initally postponed as heavy snowfall made the running of the event impossible.
ERC Promotor, Eurosport Events, worked with
the organizers to reschedule the event to a mid
October slot but was unable to finalize the deal.
9/44
Consequently it was decided that the rally will be
dropped from this year’s ERC calendar. No replacement rally will be added, meaning the number of events drops rom 12 to 11.
Image: Hyunday Motorsport
Image: Hyundai Motorsport